Abstract

When atoms in a beam pass through the cavity mode in a bistable system, multistability may be made possible due to coherent Rabi cycling of the atoms if the transit time is less than a spontaneous lifetime. Our previous study of this effect was limited to the absorptive case, and we showed that the multistability should be experimentally observable in spite of the degrading effects of spontaneous emission, transverse variation of the cavity mode, and velocity distribution of the atomic beam. Now we extend that work to consider the mixed absorptive-dispersive case by including nonzero detunings between the atoms and the laser and between the cavity and the laser. We find that, by adjusting the detunings, it is possible to modify the relative size of the secondary positive-slope regions compared to the size of the primary region of hysteresis in the state equation. The consequences of this change could be improved ease of experimental observation and richer instability behavior. We will also report on the effects of varying the ratio of the longitudinal and transverse relaxation times.

© 1993 Optical Society of America